


a different perspective

by popnographic



Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, Birthday, Fluff, M/M, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 21:52:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5886676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/popnographic/pseuds/popnographic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes you need someone else's perspective on things (and maybe a little slap in the back of your head) in order to fully understand.</p><p> </p><p>  <b>Written for Rin's birthday (2/2/2016)</b></p>
            </blockquote>





	a different perspective

**Author's Note:**

> [Iska](http://iskabee.tumblr.com) helped me with coming up with pretty much a majority of the things in this because I'm an unimaginative s.o.b. Thanks, bee. ❤

Ever since they’d gotten the phone call, Makoto’s been on edge and so far from his normal self that anyone who doesn’t know _why_ would be freaked out. Rin knows, but he doesn’t understand why Makoto’s so unwilling to do anything about it. The way Makoto _isn’t_ doing anything is driving Rin insane, and while he’d been approaching it carefully in the beginning, his patience is running out.

“So you’re just gonna lie here all day?” The bundle in their bed moves ever so slightly, and Rin sighs. “Again?”

“Mmm.” His voice is muffled, yet audible, from beneath the duvet.

“I think he’d appreciate it if you came.”

“He’s in a _coma_ , Rin. He won’t know if I’ve been there, it won’t matter.”

Rin furrows his brows, pinches the bridge of his nose, and lets out a slow exhale. “I don’t get it. _Why_ aren’t you going? You know what they say, it only helps them to wake up sooner if they hear voices. I’m sure he’d love to—“

“He won’t hear a thing, Rin. I don’t care what you say, I’m not going.”

 “Why?!” Rin bristles. “You know, your parents keep asking me the same thing, and I don’t know what to tell them. Because _you_ won’t fucking tell me what’s going on inside your head, why you won’t do like the rest of your family and just go visit him, if even just once.”

Rin hears a sigh, and the duvet bundle moves once again just before Makoto’s head pops out of it. Probably the first time in all day, but Rin wouldn’t call that an accomplishment, if even a step forward, because Makoto _hasn’t_ taken a step out of bed in all day, so it doesn’t count.

“I don’t want to go, Rin. Drop it.”

“Are you _that_ scared of facing reality? Here’s the thing: you have a choice. You can go see him now, maybe tomorrow, and maybe those times will be your last, but you know what? At least you _have_ a chance to say what you want before your grandfather dies. I didn’t get that with my dad. I didn’t know that when I last saw him, it would be _the_ last time.”

“We don’t even know if he’s not going to make it,” Makoto mutters, and Rin snorts, raising his eyebrows in shock and disbelief.

“ _Now_ you’re optimistic?”

“This isn’t the same as it was with your dad, Rin. Don’t make this about you.”

“I’m not _making_ this about me! I’m trying to get you to go see your grandfather in the hospital, but you’re being a fucking baby about it! I’m trying to do you a favour here!”

Makoto recoils at Rin’s raised voice, but his expression remains the same: emotionless, completely blank. He looks like he’s already given up, and that pisses Rin off the most.

“Forget it,” he spits out before he storms off to the bathroom to grab his toothbrush. He only returns to the bedroom to shove a change of clothes into his duffel bag, and when he’s on his way out, he turns his head to the side. “I can’t believe you’re this unconcerned with a family member who might not live in a few days. I thought you were better than this.”

Rin at least has the decency to not slam the door as he leaves. Well, apparently he’ll be spending his birthday at his sister’s place. While that isn’t really what he’d expected, it might be better than being at home with the way things are between him and Makoto now.

 

* * *

 

Rin’s standing just down the street from Gou’s apartment building when he calls her. It would’ve been good to see if she was home _before_ he left his own place, but everything happened so fast that he didn’t have time to think about it before dashing out the door. So maybe it _was_ childish and immature of him to just leave like that, but he finds Makoto even more immature for acting the way he is. How can someone be so indifferent about a family member who’s in the hospital? Rin doesn’t understand it, and he knows Makoto wouldn’t bother trying to explain.

“ _Rin?_ ”

“Hey,” he greets. “Are you at home?”

“ _That depends. What do you want?_ ”

He bites his lower lip in hesitation before he speaks; he knows she’s _not_ going to like this. “Can I spend the night at your place?”

“ _What? Why?_ ”

“Some things happened. So, can I?”

Gou sighs. “ _You fought again, didn’t you?_ ”

“Yes, okay, fine,” Rin huffs impatiently, tapping his foot against the ground. “Can you answer the question? I’m freezing my ass off here.”

“ _Well, you should’ve thought about that before you left the apartment, idiot. Fine, come on up_.”

As if he hadn’t thought about that himself. Well, they’re siblings, after all.

Gou opens the door and meets him with raised eyebrows and a look that tells Rin he won’t be going to sleep before he tells her what’s happened, probably in great detail, too. He probably owes her that much considering she’s even letting him spend the night. He doesn’t meet her gaze for long before he chickens out and walks inside her apartment.

“So talk to me,” Gou demands when she’s set up his futon in the living room and sits down on it. “What did you do this time?”

Rin glares daggers at his sister as he sits down on said futon across from his sister with a sigh. “I didn’t do anything! It’s just… you know how Makoto’s grandfather’s in the hospital, right?”

“Yeah,” Gou replies, and it’s almost scary how quickly her expression goes from stern to sombre. “What about it?”

“He hasn’t been there even once, and I asked him why. Told him he should go, talk to his grandfather or something since they say it can help. Right?”

“Right.”

“But he’s being so unreasonable, and then I told him how I would’ve liked to have a chance to see my dad for the last time and tell him things I never got to say. And then he said—“

“You brought in _Dad_ to this?”

With the snap of two fingers, Gou is back to being angry at him again, this time angrier than before, and it makes Rin confused more than anything.

“What, you don’t think it’s the same thing?”

“It’s not the same thing,” Gou says. “You don’t just compare things like that, especially when you’re talking about a person who might actually survive. Dad didn’t.”

“So we had it worse, is what you’re saying.”

“Stop _comparing_ things, Rin! That isn’t what this is about. You had no right to drag Dad into this argument, you could’ve gotten your point across fine without having to do that. You could’ve just left that part out, really. Besides, you don’t even know why he won’t go visit his grandfather, and maybe Makoto has a legitimate reason for it. Did you even ask?”

“I did, but he’s not talking to me!” Rin says almost desperately. “I’m trying to get through to him, Gou, but he won’t let me in. I’m trying to be supportive, but he makes me feel like a worthless piece of shit instead, because I can’t do anything for him.”

“Well, _this_ certainly didn’t help your case,” she drawls. “You really need to go back home and talk to him. Apologise, let him do things as he wants at his own pace. Sometimes you’ve just got to accept that there isn’t anything you can do, and all you _can_ do is show him that you’re there for him. That’s it.”

Rin lets out a humourless laugh and lies down. “I can’t believe you’re my little sister. Sometimes it feels like it’s the opposite.”

“Honestly, I couldn’t agree more on that,” Gou says before she gets up from the futon. “Get some sleep, I’m taking you out for lunch tomorrow.”

“What?”

She sighs in exasperation. “Please don’t tell me you forgot what tomorrow is.”

“No, I didn’t, but— oh.”

“Yeah. Good night.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey. Wake up, good morning or whatever.”

He’s rudely awakened by a finger poking him in the cheek, and Rin groans before turning over to the other side.

“Come _on_ , are you going to sulk away your entire birthday? I even made plans,” Gou complains before she begins pulling at his arm. “Get up.”

“It’s just a birthday. I turn twenty-four, it’s not a big deal.”

“It _is_ a big deal, because it’s my brother’s birthday, and I don’t get to celebrate it with just you normally, so get a move on.”

“Where’re we going?” he mumbles, hugging the blanket closer to himself.

“Kitchen. Breakfast. Then we can laze around for a bit before I take you out to lunch as promised. But first breakfast, preferably before things go cold and soggy.”

Rin finally sits up and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. “You didn’t have to _make_ me breakfast, Gou.”

 _It’s too much, and I don’t deserve this_ , are words he won’t say, because he knows she’ll just chew his head off if he does. He told her a while ago that those days are over, but they may have just returned because of this whole Makoto thing. Hopefully they won’t become weeks, but that’s something he’ll just have to fix on his own, seeing as he was the one to create the problem in the first place.

For right now, though, Rin chooses to put his attention to the breakfast Gou’s prepared for him, and while it isn’t anything out of the ordinary in regards to traditional Japanese breakfast, it nearly brings tears to his eyes because it was made for _him_. Makoto usually goes out to buy breakfast on his birthday since he still can’t cook and isn’t allowed near the stove, but Gou actually made him breakfast. And it isn’t just white rice, miso and fish—there’s tamagoyaki and gyoza, too.

“You know, I don’t say this a lot, but you’re the best sister one could have,” Rin says, and when Gou smiles brightly at him, he almost regrets saying it. Almost.

“Thanks. You’re not too bad of a sibling yourself.”

“Funny.”

The two spend some time watching TV after breakfast—Rin having insisted on helping to clean up afterwards, at least—and Rin really likes that this is the extent of what’s going on during his birthday so far. It’s just him and Gou, and nothing too fancy, too loud, too much. It stings a little to think about Makoto, so he tries not to, even though he knows he’ll have to get it sorted out later that day.

“You know,” Gou begins, “I remember when we celebrated my thirteenth birthday, when you’d come home for winter break. I know you probably don’t remember it, but—“

“I do,” Rin interrupts. “I gave you a teddy bear wearing an Australian shirt. I remember thinking it was really ugly, but you liked it for some reason.”

She softly elbows him in the side. “Mostly because it was from you.”

“So you finally admit to it being ugly?”

“I guess so,” Gou admits with a laugh. “I guess it just meant a lot to me that you’d still make time for us, come home over Christmas break even if it was just for a week and a half.”

“Of course I would,” he frowns. “You’re my family, after all.”

The restaurant Gou takes him thankfully isn’t the most expensive one, but it’s still no fast-food place where you could get a burger for about four hundred yen. They each get a plate of sushi rolls and onigiri, and Gou orders them some different kinds of tempura on the side.

“You reminded me of why I need to eat sushi more often,” Rin says between bites. Gou smiles.

“I don’t eat it enough, either. I would make it myself, but it’s so time consuming, and who’s got the time these days?”

Rin returns the smile, and ponders his sister’s words. It’s strange to think about how much their lives have changed in the past few years, and how _different_ their lives are now, too. He’s glad they’re both still in Iwatobi after all this time, or he’d probably only see Gou during the holidays, which isn’t often enough.

He’s really bad with telling his sister just how much she means to him, and Rin guesses he always has been. It used to be a thing where it was too embarrassing to say, but these days he feels like she’d almost take it as an insult considering how he treated her during elementary school and up until his last year of high school. Rin really doesn’t feel like he deserves such a patient and understanding sister, but is thankful to have her nonetheless.

“Gou, I’m… really thankful to you. I know I never say it, but I am.”

She raises her eyebrows in surprise, and then laughs. “You sound like you just had the best meal of your life, was it that good?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Rin says and glares at her before her smile widens, and his own expression softens.

“I know. ‘S just because I love you, dummy. And not just because you’re my brother and I _have_ to love you. Sometimes you make it feel like I have to, though not so much these days, thankfully.”

“I’m working on paying you back for all those years.”

Gou grins. “Then how about taking me out to dinner? Ditch Makoto for Valentine’s day and take me out instead.”

“You wish.”

 

* * *

 

 

Rin returns to his own apartment after an entire day out with Gou, and while she hadn’t given him anything ‘because he’s too difficult to shop for’, he didn’t really need anything besides her company, as cheesy as that sounds to himself and probably others, too. It feels a little weird and almost wrong to come back home after how he’d left the night before, but if Makoto doesn’t want him to come home yet, he’ll make it clear if not in words then with the way he acts.

“Hey,” he says almost sheepishly as he walks in through the door. “I’m home.”

Makoto nearly knocks the air out of his lungs with how he comes to greet Rin with a hug right by the door. “Welcome home, Rin. I’m sorry, and I missed you.”

As if someone snapped their fingers, Rin starts feeling teary-eyed, but blinks the tears away stubbornly and clears his throat. “Don’t be sorry, I should be the one to apologise. I’m sorry, Makoto—I know you probably have your reasons for not going. And while I don’t understand them, you don’t have to tell me, and I’ll just have to be there to support you. Because I love you, you know?”

Makoto lets go of him, but then cups Rin’s cheeks in his hands, touching their foreheads together. “I love you, too. I… I didn’t want to go because I was scared that it’d be the last time I saw him. And I didn’t want to realise that, so I ran away. Like I always do. You were right, I’m scared of facing reality.”

Rin shakes his head and separates himself a little from Makoto. “I shouldn’t have said that. I said it because I was angry, and because I didn’t understand. Now I do.”

Makoto smiles a little, and he looks optimistic, which makes Rin’s heart skip a beat. “I actually went today. To the hospital.”

Rin’s eyebrows skyrocket. “You did?”

“Yeah. He actually woke up this morning, and they say he’ll probably be able to leave within a week. I talked to him a little, too, and he said he would’ve wanted to see you, too.”

“Maybe we can go and see him when he’s out of the hospital,” Rin suggests, and Makoto nods once, looking appreciative.

“I think he’d like that. Oh, and happy birthday, Rin. I actually ordered food since… well, you know. I got us sushi, since it’s been so long since we had any! Do you mind? I’m sorry, I just got so excited when I came up with the idea.”

Rin bites back a groan, but then laughs. “I don’t. Thanks, Makoto.”

**Author's Note:**

> [radiodread](http://radiodread.tumblr.com) @ tumblr


End file.
